The first postindependence parliamentary elections dominated Kazakhstan’s political life in the first two months of 1994. The new Supreme Council (Kenges), elected on March 7, included representatives of the most important political groups, although Kazakh nationalist groups and representatives of the Russian community did less well than the Socialist (former Communist) Party. The most successful party, the People’s Unity Union, was supported by Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had assumed that the new legislature would be more supportive of his economic reforms than had its predecessor. At its first session, however, the new Supreme Soviet adopted a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Sergey Tereshchenko’s program to rescue the country from its post-Soviet economic malaise. Nazarbayev continued to support Tereshchenko, but after a series of corruption scandals involving government ministers and the failure of Tereshchenko’s program to produce results by October, the president asked the government to resign. Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the new prime minister, who had helped shape Nazarbayev’s reform program in the former government, promised to accelerate, rather than slow down, market reforms.

The appointment of Kazhegeldin, a Kazakh, upset the ethnic balance that had prevailed when Tereshchenko, a Slav, held the post of prime minister. The increasing Kazakhization of the country contributed to the emigration of thousands of non-Kazakhs during 1994. Attempts by officials in the Russian Federation to persuade Kazakhstan’s leadership to permit dual Kazakhstani-Russian citizenship were rejected. To lessen tensions between Kazakhs and Russians, journalist Boris Suprunyuk, a spokesman for the Russian community, was given a suspended sentence on a charge of fostering interethnic animosities.

The most ambitious privatization plan for any of the Central Asian states was launched in Kazakhstan at the end of April, with 3,500 enterprises, representing about 70% of the country’s state-owned firms, slated for auction over a 15-month period. Popular anger over high inflation and falling living standards contributed to Tereshchenko’s ouster, and in the autumn disturbances were reported over a rumoured increase in the price of bread and bread rationing.

In January Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan moved toward an economic union and began to dismantle customs and other barriers. In March Nazarbayev proposed a Eurasian Union embracing the former Soviet republics. It generated much discussion within the Commonwealth of Independent States, but only Russia reacted favourably. Frictions developed with Russia over the Baikonur space complex and its demand for a share in the development of Kazakhstan’s gas and oil resources. Bess Brown